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Interesting reading to start your week

Just got back from a smashing weekend away from the hustle and bustle of London. Suffice to say a huge number of articles were sitting in my RSS reader awaiting my return. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

The big potential for social media is to be a tool for mass collaboration, say Anthony Bradley and Mark McDonald of Gartner, Inc. The challenge for companies: look beyond the obvious uses for marketing and communicating.

My thoughts: This is spot on. For the most part social media is still used as a marketing tool for communicating externally. It will become truely valuable when it begins to underpin fundamental changes in how our organisations are managed.

Google’s decision to launch its own music store is the latest salvo in a wider conflict being waged by the titans of the tech world. Like spiders spinning vast webs, Apple, Amazon and Google are doing their best to create huge “ecosystems” of tightly linked electronic devices and online services that snare consumers and discourage them from switching to rivals’ offerings. Digital music has a special place in these systems because of its popularity and because Apple has shown that it can be a money-spinner too.

My thoughts: I'm kinda old school in that I think once you own music it should be playable on any device, so competition for Apple in this area is very welcome. I just wish it would come from a fresh and exciting startup rather than the big G extending its tentacle into yet another direction.

Because ultimately, this is what enabling social media within a corporate structure is all about – the relinquishing of power and control. This is about information as a commodity, rather than as a means of controlling people.

My thoughts: I think this is right. Too often people get hung up on social media platforms or tools and forget the underlying things it enables. People that have grown up with social media now expect the constant communication and meritocratic approach to ideas that social media provides. It's not just a marketing tool, it's a new way of being.